The Motivation behind Moving Worlds

Moving Worlds was the most popular VRML 2.0 proposal as a result of its technical merit as well as the collaborative process by which it was developed. In August of 1995, almost half a year before the formal RFP for VRML 2.0 was issued, Sony had proposed its own Extended VRML (E-VRML) technology as the basis for VRML 2.0. Sony's E-VRML was an extension to VRML 1.0 that added behaviors to the original language in order to allow users to interact with VRML content. By adding behavior scripts and events to VRML 1.0, E-VRML allowed elements of a VRML scene to change based on user activity. Unlike static content created with VRML 1.0, E-VRML scenes were alive and could dynamically react to things the user was doing.

For example, you could explore an E-VRML building where doors would swing open when clicked or windows could be opened and closed if desired. Likewise, you could pick up and examine in detail and from any angle the various objects in the scene, such as a vase or lamp. Although such capabilities sound quite simple, VRML 1.0 didn't support interactive content. In VRML 1.0, you could see the door, windows, and objects in the building but not interact with them. E-VRML scenes bristled with a sense of realism that VRML 1.0 lacked.